Teach Us to Pray (Part 1)
Ask: What is one activity that you took lessons to learn how to do? (piano, sports, school, etc.…)
After I graduated from college, I was able to be a missionary in Spain for two years. I really wanted to be able to communicate well with the people so I hired someone to teach me Spanish. I had to spend time in the classroom learning the rules and vocabulary, my instructor took me out to local shops to talk with random strangers, and she gave me homework. By the end of my time, I was able to understand and speak Spanish fluently. I also wanted to learn to surf and got lessons for that, but that didn’t go so well…
In the scripture today we read that Jesus’ disciples were watching Him and saw something they wanted to know how to do, too.
Read: Luke 11:1
Think about this…these men had been following Jesus around for a while and had seen him do some incredible things, things like calming a raging storm, feeding 5,000+ people with five loaves of bread and two fish, and giving life back to not one, but two people who had died. But they didn’t ask Jesus to teach them how to do any of those things. They asked him to teach them how to pray. They saw Jesus always praying, and God hearing and answering His prayers and they wanted to know how to pray!
This should tell us something about the importance of prayer. Maybe we should spend more time learning to pray. Thankfully, the disciples asked Jesus and we have his answer written down for us.
Tomorrow, we will see what Jesus taught them.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for making it possible for me to talk with you. Help me to understand how important it is. In Jesus name, amen.